The present invention relates to lift systems for implements adapted for attachment to lawn and garden tractors and more specifically relates to lift systems for front-mounted implements.
Lawn and garden tractors are usually provided with a lift system for raising and lowering the working elements of mid-, rear- or front-mounted implements. A common way of attaching front-mounted implements to the tractor is to releasably fix a support bracket to the forward end of the tractor main frame and to mount the implement to the bracket by fasteners establishing a horizontal, transverse axis about which structure carrying the working element is vertically swingable. The lift systems of these tractors often include a hand lever located adjacent the tractor seat and coupled for rocking a main rockshaft mounted in the tractor main frame or in a pedestal carried by the frame. Movement of this lever is transferred to the structure carrying the working element either directly through a link coupled between the lever and the structure or indirectly by a linkage connected between the main rockshaft and the structure, such linkage often including one or more additional rockshafts rotatably mounted in the tractor frame and linked for being rotated when the main rockshaft is rotated.
It is also known to provide a lift system which is embodied in the front-mounted implement. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,025 discloses a snowblower including a support bracket mounted to downwardly projecting flanges provided on a forward underside portion of the tractor main frame. A pair of longitudinally extending transversely spaced arms have their forward ends rigidly fixed to the snowblower housing and their rearward ends are pivotally mounted to a rear portion of the support bracket for vertical swinging movement about a horizontal transverse axis. A hand lever is mounted to one end of a rockshaft carried by an upper forward portion of the support bracket and is linked to the spaced arms of the snowblower whereby pivoting of the lever back and forth effects raising and lowering of the arms and thus raising and lowering of the snowblower housing.
These known lift systems have the disadvantage that their support brackets are rather cumbersome to mount onto the tractor frame. A further disadvantage is that some tractors for economy purposes may be built in a uni-body fashion resulting in their not having requisite framework at the forward end of the tractor for permitting support brackets to be secured thereto or may be built such that their lift systems are not structurally suited for connection to front-mounted implements. While the afore-described patented structure overcomes this latter deficiency by embodying the lift system in the implement structure, the location of the handle is too far forwardly from the tractor seat and cannot be easily manipulated by a seated operator.